world in progress...

Sites with a political/world affairs focus worth checking out:

politics.slashdot (news and discussion)

Politics section for this mother of all geek news aggregators. Rest assured all major and many interesting stories will make it here. The discussion can be filtered to your preferred content and style by using slashdot's comment viewing preferences.

Council on Foreign Relations (views and analysis)

The most respected foreign affairs site I've come across. Expert information, analysis and commentary from all sides of the political spectrum on a broad range of topics.

Informed Comment - thoughts on the Middle East, history, and religion (news, views and analysis)

Juan Cole is a professor of history at the University of Chicago. His blog offers no doubt about his stance on the Bush administration and Israel but his expertise is hard to argue with. For instance, how many other commentators can do their own translations of al-Jazeera broadcasts?

The New York Review of Books (views)

Ostensibly a review site but essays feature prominently, and always the reviews of books on history, politics or current affairs are informed by a strong editorial viewpoint that makes the reviews interesting articles in their own right.

America's Debate (discussion)

Haven't checked this out in detail, but it looks promising. Many topics up for debate in a more tightly moderated environment.

Global Issues (information)

Over 5000 excerpts and links to articles, reports and analysis on issues such as trade, poverty and globalization, human rights, geopolitics and the environment. Great resource.

Nation Master (information)

A warehouse of statistical data from the CIA World Factbook, the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD; all nicely graphable by country. Some of the information can be a little bit out of date.